My Mom and Your Dad
by WizMonCruWil
Summary: I got the idea for what if Katniss's mother and Peeta's dad were in the arena together? A Quell, in fact? Where the twist forces the parents of the Star-Crossed Lovers to confront their past? Enjoy! I also researched all the AU possibilities for other District 12 first Victors, and put them all together in this story, so District 12 has a bigger Victor pool.
1. Chapter 1: 75th Reaping

**Chapter 1: 75th Reaping**

I tug at my blue dress as I wait on the podium with my six fellow Victors. I really don't know why I have to wear it, since as a Victor, I should no longer be in danger of being Reaped.

For this is a Quarter Quell year for the death match known as the Hunger Games. Ever quarter of a century, there is some twist to the fight to the death amongst the 12 districts of Panem that adds some spice. This time, childhood sweethearts will be Reaped as the tributes.

District 12 has not done too bad a job for itself over the years. Even if we are seen as one of the loser districts. In 75 years, we have had seven wins. One of them was the previous Quell. Another was last year. My win, alongside with my district partner, Peeta Mellark. I've never been alive to see a tribute of ours win, other than myself. District 12 outranks five others for number of victories, and ties two more. But it would be nice to actually witness a District 12 tribute come back alive…. other than myself. After the Dark Days speech, Mayor Undersee reads our names:

"The Victor of the 2nd Hunger Games: Anya Hart!" An 89-year-old woman shakily stands with the help of her colleagues. One of the very first Victors. It's a miracle that she's still alive. Most Victors don't live past their sixties, and those that do are treated with great respect.

"The Victor of the 13th Hunger Games: Duke Vedaldi!" Duke is in his late 70s, but still ruggedly handsome.

"The Victor of the 14th Hunger Games: Raab Ravenott!" Raab is only a year behind Duke, I think, which requires bringing up an interesting commonality between all five of our Victors: they all won at 16 years old. And Raab is probably the only one who has married, and broken what is known as the Victors' Code, forbidding attachments. He wed an old shoemaker's widow, after she lost both her children to the Games.

"The Victor of the 16th Hunger Games: Cassiope Fletch!" It is rumored that Cassiope - who has been alive as long as the Games have been in existence - married a kindly Peacekeeper many years back, but entirely in secret. Only a Toasting of bread - District 12's marriage tradition, and no official registry with the Justice Building. But these rumors have never been confirmed. The Teens - so, really, 60 years ago - were the heyday for District 12 wins. We almost got a Hat Trick, three in a row, but were denied by a loss in the 15th Games.

"The Victor of the 50th Hunger Games, or Second Quarter Quell: Haymitch Abernathy!" Haymitch is only 41 and a drunkard. Good for a laugh, as he sways whilst trying to stand.

"The Co-Victors of the 74th Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!" Huge cheers.

Our district escort, Effie Trinket, now bounds to the microphone to begin the Reaping.

"Lillian Everdeen!"

I nearly topple into Peeta in shock. I thought she was safe! The only sweetheart she ever had was her husband, and he's been dead for six years. So….. who else could she have been involved with? I feel like this Reaping has now become a huge invasion of my mother's own privacy.

"Steffan Mellark!" Oh. My. God.

My mother was involved with Peeta's dad?! I give Peeta a look, but I can't tell if he is surprised as I am to also see one of his own parents take the stage.

The tributes shake hands and are escorted into the Justice Building.

* * *

When you get to have as many Victors as District 12 does, not everyone has to go. So I am shocked when all six of my companions join me on the train.

We will be a motley crew for mentoring. Anya is far too old, has no business coming along. She is practically senile, and will likely be dead in a few years. But Duke looks after her well enough. Haymitch will drink till the liquor runs out, so he's largely useless, but Cassiope will keep him in check. And Raab? Raab is just there. To diffuse the tension; he's always good for a laugh.

Steffan and Peeta are talking in low whispers. I just give my mother a look of pure confusion. And hurt. Why would she feel the need to keep this from me? That there was anyone else other than my father? Her relationship with the Baker - the father of the man I am now essentially betrothed to - had to have occurred while she was still a Merchant - a schoolgirl's fling that didn't last.

Once we begin mentoring, we start to go in a Kumbaya circle, giving little bits of advice and often finishing each other's sentences. With seven people, it's going to be crowded.

"And the other districts, especially 5 and 7, will be looking to us," Duke warns. "We are the only non-Career district that ties them now."

"Because 5+7=12!" Haymitch crows drunkenly. We all stare at him.

* * *

And it gets even more crowded once we reach the Capitol.

The paparazzi are all over us, everyone dying to know how, with the unusual nature of the Quell twist, the names Mellark and Everdeen are in contention once again.

The Chariot Parade passes quickly, as it usually does, and we are soon in the penthouse suite. Training begins the next day, over three suns and moons.

With the twist, all of the tributes are past Reaping age, and there is quite the variety across generations for former sweethearts. Steffan and my mother, Lillian, do well over the three days, sticking to themselves out of familiarity and self-preservation. My mother pulls a 7, respectable score for someone who does not have a killer's bone in her body. Peeta's dad actually beats her, at an 8.

Cassiope and I train my mother for the interviews. Anya joins us, but falls asleep and stays asleep in a chair. I honestly wonder why we brought the old woman. Surely, Steffan against four rambunctious guys, one of them his own son, will be lively.

That fourth night is the interview session with Caesar Flickerman. The moment my mother takes the stage, Caesar asks her, "We're dying to know! These Everdeens must be really susceptible to those Mellark men! What kind of relationship did you have with Steffan?"

Mother bites her lip and refuses to look at me. "We were childhood friends growing up, and our families were really close. But... after I met Katniss's father... we drew apart."

"Can you kill him when the time comes? Steffan?"

Mother answers honestly. "No, Caesar. I'm a Healer, not a killer."

Then it's Steffan's turn. He largely gives the same response as Mother regarding their long-ago relationship, even down to refusing to kill her if it came to it. It really is a sick twist on the part of the Capitol. But if sweethearts can't bring themselves to murder each other, it could blow up in the Capitol's face.

Peeta holds me in his arms tightly that night.


	2. Chapter 2: Quell, Day 1

**Chapter 2: Quell, Day 1**

It is with great reluctance that I say goodbye to our tributes before the hovercraft the next morning. I find it within myself, despite our strains, to hug Mother goodbye and tearfully tell her I love her. When the plane goes, Haymitch leads the way down to the Mentors' Bar.

The Victors Peeta and I meet are nice, and they give deference to Anya, which I appreciate.

The arena is in a jungle, with the Cornucopia set on an island in a miniature sea. Rocky spokes create watery wedges for every pair of tributes.

Mother and the Baker escape the Bloodbath - two of only ten tributes to do so. And the kills are pretty clean, with only Districts 2, 3, 7, 11 and 12 surviving intact.

In the jungle, Peeta's and my parents actually run into - and manage to kill - the sweethearts from District 7. Suddenly, we are at the Final Eight after the first day. I wonder if the field is weak.

After fighting off some monkey mutts, Lillian manages to Heal an injured Steffan. They rest on the beach until the sun goes down.


	3. Chapter 3: Quell, Day 2

**Chapter 3: Quell, Day 2**

Throughout the second day on the beach, Mother and Steffan just talk. The Careers don't bother with them, instead hunting down the couples from Districts 3 and 11 and killing them in the jungle. All the while, Peeta's and my parents talk about why they didn't work.

"Why did you leave?" Steffan asks.

"You know why," Mother whispers, refusing to look him in the eye. "Estes wooed me away with just his singing. I fell in love, Steffan. It happens. I only wish I could have had both of you." She doesn't say anymore, but I know she pitys Steffan for his ultimate fate: marrying, settling I guess, for a witch of a woman who reportedly beats her three sons. How he managed to have three of them by her, I have no idea.

Another set of cannons sounds. District 11, I think. Steffan suddenly kisses my mother in the fading light.

And I have to turn away as she kisses him back.

When I dare myself to look a few moments later, I am shocked and repulsed to see that my mother is ripping at the clothes of another man. She straddles Peeta's father in the sand and begins to make frantic love to him. The Baker flips them and begins to pound into her, kissing her all over her face as Mother closes her eyes and smiles in abject pleasure. She moans incessantly, crying out as she orgasms. The Baker follows into her with a grunt. Old people sex is weird.

It is the first time I have seen my mother with any man other than my father. I feel sick, and I wonder if Peeta does too. I even wonder how the Witch must feel, watching her husband betray his marriage vows (as his wife is still very much alive) on national television.

I guess Peeta and my Star-Crossed Lovers' Act runs in the family.

We are now down to the Final Four. District 2 versus District 12 for the crown. As night falls on the second day and the faces of four more dead tributes appear in the sky, Peeta and I begin to entertain the very real possibility that one of our parents will win the Games. A Quell! It would be historic, the first time in history a parent and child would have won the Games. This possibility actually means that Peeta and I are arguing about which of our parents should come home.

I shouldn't be as shocked as I am when Peeta actually wants my mother to win. "So, you and Prim aren't orphans!" is the rationale he gives.

But I know what happens if Mother wins. Steffan dies and Paula, the Witch and Peeta's mother, will be free to beat on her Victor son and his two older brothers to her heart's content. But Peeta just smiles when I voice these concerns.

"I'm a Victor. Even she can't hurt me."

I wish I could say I believe him.


	4. Chapter 4: The Victor

**Chapter 4: The Victor**

On the third day, District 2 (a couple who happen to be married, so I guess their sweetheart phase actually turned into a union) return to the beach. They have to face off against Mother and Steffan.

I wonder if having spouses in the arena, instead of just sweethearts, would have been a better or worse Quell twist. But that would mean that Daddy's death would have saved Mother from the Games. And perhaps it would be Peeta's parents together in the arena. I am actually sure the Witch would not have had any qualms about killing her own husband.

Steffan manages to take out the District 2 male, when the final battle comes. But the female from 2 - the brute's wife - actually injures him. Only with the last of his strength and an assist from Mother with a knife do they overpower her.

A Mellark and an Everdeen back in the Top Two. And District 12 will have a Victor again, their eight overall.

And it won't be Steffan.

Mother holds his hand as he dies, listening as he confesses his love for her. I turn my face away from the screen again, but now out of respect rather than revulsion. I even watch as the Baker and Mother share a chaste and tender kiss goodbye. The Witch must be feeling awful right now.

Then, Claudius Templesmith announces my mother's Victory: "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the winner of the 75th Annual Hunger Games or Third Quarter Quell: Lillian Everdeen of District 12!"

* * *

Mother is pulled from the arena and her final interview is forgettable. She returns home to District 12 with the rest of us, and she and my sister have an emotional reunion.

We do not encounter the Witch in the weeks and months after our Quell Victory, and I have a feeling that Peeta ensures this by design, keeping the two women and former rivals apart. But, Peeta and I marry during Mother's Victory Tour, to add drama, and also to force the Witch there and have her and Mother have a civil interaction with one another.

And so the Games continue...


End file.
